The human disease, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), particularly the strain known as HIV-1.
Like other viruses, HIV-1 cannot replicate without comandeering the biosynthetic apparatus of the host cell it infects. It causes this apparatus to produce the structural proteins which make up the viral progeny. These proteins are coded for by the genetic material contained within the infecting virus particle, or virion. Being a retrovirus, however, the genetic material of HIV is RNA, not DNA as in the host cell's genome. Accordingly, the viral RNA must first be converted into DNA, and then integrated into the host cell's genome, in order for the host cell to produce the required viral proteins.
The conversion of the RNA to DNA is accomplished through the use of the enzyme reverse transcriptase (RT), which is included within the infecting virion along with the RNA. Reverse transcriptase has three enzymatic functions; it acts as an RNA-dependent DNA polymerase, as a ribonuclease, and as a DNA polymerase. Acting first as an RNA-dependent DNA polymerase, RT makes a single-stranded DNA copy of the viral RNA. Next, acting as a ribonuclease, RT frees the DNA just produced from the original viral RNA and then destroys the original RNA. Finally, acting as a DNA-dependent DNA polymerase, RT makes a second complementary, DNA strand, using the first DNA strand as a template. The two strands form double-stranded DNA, the form of DNA found in the host cell's genome, which is integrated into the host cell's genome by another enzyme, called an integrase.
Compounds which inhibit the enzymatic functions of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase will inhibit replication of HIV-1 in infected cells. Such compounds are useful in the prevention or treatment of HIV-1 infection in human subjects.